Abstract

One of the apparent principles of budgeting is annuality also reflected in the Constitution of Iran. But what is the foundation of this principle despite its clarity? This article as a library research is based on the methods of historical and comparative analysis to find the origins of the annual budgeting principle and to clarify the amount of preservation and survival of those origins in the actual era and to consider the efficiency of the annual budgeting principle to provide the goals. This study indicates that the annual budgeting principle is on the basis of two main foundations: the annual revenue of the government and the impossibility of auditing in less than a year which is nowadays not mattered. Beside this, the subsequent consequences of annuality like comparative insight and strategic targeting would be provided by other means such as long-term financial planning. The annual budgeting principle is in practice implemented with numerous exceptions. Although the increase in budgeting intervals makes the governments not to appropriately react in front of changing people’s will and power rotation, every government in the actual situation is somehow involved with the consequences of previous policy-makings. Due to the facilities and requirements of the present era, there is no need to emphasize on the annuality of the budget as a principle.